“We’re spitting blood in our vines, we’re going to die!” : winegrowers from Gard and Hérault between despair and anger

Un face à face tendu mais qui n'a jamais dégénéré. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

Des victiculteurs du Gard et de l'Hérault se sont invitées ce lundi 18 mars, au Domaine de Manse, à Lattes, où siège l’IGP Pays d’Oc. Pour un débat tendu.

Winegrowers, mainly from Gard, and from Hérault, non-unionized, and in no way affiliated with any political movement, there were around thirty of them who were invited early this Monday March 18 in the morning, in Lattes, at the elective board of directors of the union of producers of Pays d’Oc wines (the Protected Geographical Indication which represents 13,000 winegrowers in Languedoc and the Pyrénées-Orientales ).

S’ensued an impromptu meeting lasting more than 90 minutes, at which Midi Libreattended, where the exchanges were sometimes muscular, tense, but without limits ever being exceeded, as we were able to observe.

"The base is what we are"

These winegrowers ("the base, that's what we are"), intended to convey to their elected officials, without their anger, their despair, their fears, even their doubts, in the face of those who represent them when the time comes to negotiate with the public authorities.

"We've been asking for this meeting for months, but they've been avoiding us. So here we are"  explained Jean-Marie Treboulet, winegrower in the small Gard commune of Gailhan.

"We must move towards the uprooting"

Here they are, in the brand new premises of the Domaine de Manse, where the IGP Pays d’Oc is headquartered, to express their distress and present their demands. Anthology: "We have to find solutions because we are all on the street. The cellars must be able to pay the deposits, and emergency aid is necessary for distillation to take place. We must also move towards uprooting. There, we are in agony, with the drop in consumption, we no longer sell anything. While millions of hectoliters come back from Spain, and we say nothing! Right now, we're spitting blood in our vines, we're going to die."

To this pain and these misunderstandings, the Audois Jean-Marie Fabre, president of the Independent Winegrowers of France, the president of the IGP Pays d’Oc, and the Héraultais Jacques Gravegeal, and Jérôme Despey, n°2 of the FNSEA and new president of the Salon de l’Agriculture, tried to respond.

Negotiations with the EU and the government

The latter, in particular, listed what had already been won, after negotiation with the EU and the French government: "Two distillations of 200 million ;rsquo;euros each since 2022, 80 million euros in cash flow aid measures, or between 5,000 and 20,000 euros; by exploitation. And there, we negotiate temporary grubbing up with a premium of 2,500 € with the aim of replanting, and 4,000 € for definitive uprooting, with the aim of diversification, for those who wish it. We obtained 150 million euros for the uprooting of 100,000 hectares".

"We must stop importing wine from Spain"

Jacques Gravegeal, for his part, insisted in particular on imports: "We must stop with imports of wines from Spain, France is the first in this area, four million ;hectos per year! The marketers don't care about us!" s’he was indignant.

Before calling for "a patriotic reflex. French commercial power must be at the service of its winegrowers, and French trade must export, but not import. As does the Spanish trade and the Italian trade".

"We haven't made much progress"

Then it was time to start the meeting, delayed for some, and to return to their farms for others. Not necessarily convinced, like Freddy Paulet, from Moussac, in Gard: "I think that we have made little progress, I’ rsquo;I have the impression that they really don't care.

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